Imperialism is a geopolitical term that refers to either the direct or indirect expansion of a nation's political influence. Sometimes based on the notion of superiority and practices of dominance, the concept of imperialism implies that there is a certain degree of a state's extension of authority and control of other countries or regions, many times already inhabited. Imperialism can be classified as political or cultural. Political imperialism, or traditional imperialism, generally involves either a territory or region's direct occupation by the state's military, often ruled by a directly appointed governor. Sometimes this would only be a provisional stage, as to stabilize the region to the point where it could transition to a point that would allow for it to become more autonomous, while still remaining under direct control. Expansion would not always involve direct conquest and subsequent military occupation, but, instead, settlement or colonization, particularly in unsettled regions. Cultural imperialism is a vaguer notion, and it primarily involves a powerful and often expansive nation using its influence to spread its national culture to other countries, without directly bringing it under the same ascendancy as the dominant state. In more extreme cases, this can lead to the establishment of hegemony. Many times, nations that employ political imperialism also practice cultural imperialism, but not all the time. The reverse is also true, as cultural imperialism does not even require the culturally dominant nation to be a hegemon.

Though not all the time In general, imperialism always sees a strong human and territorial relationship where the central state exhibits some semblance of supremacy. Imperialism has been a central component of nations for much of human history; both ancient polities, like the Roman Empire and Persia, and modern states, including France, Germany, Japan, the United States and the Soviet Union have been imperialistic. The combined unit of central state and all outlying territories acquired or annexed via imperialism is commonly referred to as an empire.

There are three kinds of political empires, all of which commonly involve the spread of militaristic and cultural supremacy, especially if conquest is a primary goal. They are not necessarily exclusive of one another, and an empire may exist as all three. The term itself derives from the Latin word "Imperator", a military and political role that translates roughly to "commander-in-chief", and "imperii", which refers to a specific domain under the military's influence. Historically, empires were ruled by "emperors", a term that was introduced in the middle ages to describe a ruler who was both the king of his country and the ruler of all other lands that fell under the state's dominion. In the geopolitical sense, an empire does not need to be ruled by a monarchy or an oligarchy, and in the case of modern empires the term "emperor" has been abandoned. The word "empire" is generally seen as having a negative connotation in the 21st century due to the controversial and exploitive tactics that defined the colonial empires of the 19th century. The modern geopolitical term "superpower" is essentially a stand-in and is often invoked as a means to imply empire.

A territorial empire focuses primarily on military expansion and direct occupation of a conquered nation. Sometimes the local peoples are assimilated and cultural imperialism is employed, but not necessarily. Sometimes military occupation would only be provisional, as a means to transition a conquered region into an official province of some sort. The territorial approach to imperialism was often the earliest form employed by world empires. The Roman, Chinese, Ottoman, and French empires would be valid examples of a territorial empire.

Colonial empires, which popularized the notion of imperialism, practiced colonialism. Colonialism was often based on settlement as opposed to intentional conquest, although conquest was often a factor in the case of indigenous civilizations. The criteria an empire must meet to be classified as a colonial empire is that it must control territory overseas, these regions often directly settled and inhabited. These territories, or colonies, are generally more autonomous than those in territorial empires. The primary motivation for colonialism is less military dominance and more economic supremacy. While officially under the directorate of the central state, or "mother country", colonies, due to the vast distance between old and new worlds, generally operate with semi-autonomy, although the colonists generally have fewer political rights than those of the nation-state. The former British Empire, the German Empire, the Belgian Empire, and the modern "American Empire" would be valid examples of Colonial Empires. Geopolitically speaking, the latter would be the sole colonial empire in existence.

Hegemonic Empires refer to a collection of countries that are often linked culturally and politically. While not technically "empires" in the same way that the previous two are, hegemonies nonetheless function in the same manner. The countries upon which hegemony is enacted, while not directly ruled by a dominant nation, fall under the direct influence of a powerful central state in the region, known as a hegemon. This is often done through the installment of economic supremacy, cultural imperialism, or amassing mass political influence. Sometimes this involves the establishment of puppet states. That being said, despite independent governments existing in those nations under hegemony, their governments are almost completely under the unofficial directorate of the hegemon, to the point where their survival is dependent upon the success of the dominant state. Hegemony is sometimes official policy, but often times, in recent years, it is unofficial. Territorial and colonial empires can also have hegemonies that exist outside of the state's direct control. The United States and, to a lesser extent the United Kingdom, are examples of hegemons, holding influence in countries all over the world. Other examples would include the Greater German Reich, the U.S.S.R. & countries of the Eastern Bloc under the Warsaw Pact, the Roman Republic, and the medieval Caliphate. Additionally, the European Union have come to be highly dependent upon the German economy, and, in turn, Germany holds substantial political influence and power over most other countries in the European Union. That being said, it can be argued that Germany is exercising unofficial hegemony over the rest of Europe.

Some kingdoms, federations, and rump states would call themselves "empires" despite the fact that they hold little geopolitical similarities to empire. A lot of the time, this was simply because the state used to be an empire and still refers to itself as such, like the Western Roman Empire after Constantine's death. Throughout history, some leaders proclaimed themselves "emperor", despite not ruling a kingdom large enough to be considered as such. One such example was the Holy Roman Empire, which was more of a confederation led by an elected emperor and under quasi-papal hegemony.

Colonialism is the act of one country taking over some other area and settling it or ruling over it. It is very similar to imperialism, although colonists can be invited by the receiving country.[1]
Colonialism has been around since at least the Classical World: the Phoenicians and the Greeks colonized much of the fringes of Northern Africa, the Black Sea, Sicily, Spain, etc.

Usually, when speaking of colonialism, people refer to European colonialism (glossing over the Japanese colonial-era takeover of Taiwan in 1895 and of the Korean Empire in 1910). European countries — most notably Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands — engaged in large amounts of colonialism. After a false start with the Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099-1291), which saw settlers from Western Europe encouraged to migrate to Palestine and other parts of Outremer, serious systematic European colonization started in the 15th century (in Africa) and mostly ended in the 20th. Most of the world's surface is composed of former colonies. For example, all of the Americas and Australia, and almost all of Africa and Asia were colonized at some point. Some states, such as France and Great Britain, still have overseas colonies/dependencies/overseas-territories. However, the largest colonial empire was that of Great Britain, which ruled much of Africa and the Middle East, along with India, parts of China, Australia, New Zealand and a large part of North America.

Colonialism as a worldwide system began to fade after World War II, due to a multitude of causes. In part, many of the old colonial powers came to accept the need for self-determination in the colonies. At the same time, there had been great advances in "asymmetric warfare", as evidenced by the ability of the poorly-equipped Vietnamese forces to fight off both France and the United States.

These days, accusations of colonialism are most often leveled at the United States, Israel, and China. This might be unreasonable, since Russia, via the former Russian Empire and the later Soviet Union, colonized much of eastern Europe and western and northern Asia. In the Bad Old Days troops in the service of Russia or of the Soviet Union forcibly suppressed attempts by Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and others to remove the colonial yoke. But a new era of independence has dawned — Germany is now one nation and Czechoslovakia has become the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Russia under Vladimir Putin shows signs of trying to revive the old modality as seen in Crimea in 2014, and in less brazen interventions in places such as Georgia (2008) and Moldova. It must be said that Moscow pursues worldwide colonization with some trepidation in comparison with that of the recent activities of the United States.

A particular branch of study, "postcolonialism", has arisen to study the effects and aftermaths of colonialism on different parts of the world, from the point of view of the former colonies. It particularly focuses on differences in colonial structures and their results. Meanwhile "neocolonialism" has become one of the new snarl-words used to condemn the venerable age-old practice of exercising foreign control and economic dominance/exploitation.

Empires based on racism and exploitation are of more recent origin — Britain being the largest colonial power. Even in colonialist empires, attitudes on race varied from "White Man's Burden" type "We have to lift up those savages" rationalizations (like in India) to outright extermination of "lower races" in the Imperial Japanese and Nazi German colonization attempts (like in Rhodesia). Some Empires relied on local allies for administrative and military purposes and either overlooked their race or employed a "hierarchy" with certain local groups destined to rule over others, which was one of the origins of the hatred and divide between Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda.

A puppet, client or satellite state is an example of indirect imperialism, in which a country's government is outwardly independent but is controlled by a foreign power. Historically, the governor of a client state was referred to as a satrap and their state as a satrapy. Modern incarnations of client states started with Revolutionary France and its "sister Republics" that were created via "Revolution Export". Later on, Napoleon put his family and other rulers to his liking in control of most of Europe, creating puppet states in the process. The most famous examples come from WWII, when the Nazis pulled the strings of the Vichy French government and the Japanese set up the puppet government of Manchukuo (now Manchuria) in Northern China. After that war, it occurred on an even larger scale during the Cold War in which the Soviet Union dominated its satellites in the Eastern Bloc. One example, important in the development of Christianity and its mythology, was the Herodian kingdom which was a Roman client state whose rulers figure in several events of the New Testament.[2]

The British Empire was a massive Juggernaut that spanned across the world. Starting with the colonization of the Americas, it continues to exist in a much reduced form. At the height of the Empire its image was that of mustachioed men wearing silly white helmets and sipping tea while the dark-skinned people did all the hard work.

The Treaty of Paris in 1783 left the United States of America with an imperial scale even if the United States decisively rejected any concept of hereditary rule.

Americans wore really stupid hats during this era. Perhaps the "P" at the top is a misprint?

Other than the establishment of Liberia as a colony for freed slaves it didn't want and its involvement in the slave trade, America stayed out of Africa, though they did engage in imperialist behavior elsewhere. The Spanish American War was effectively an excuse to exert power over the Caribbean. While many Americans at the time were isolationist, the US engaged in such actions as the Open Door policy, as well as sending the Great White Fleet around the world as a show of power.[3]
During the Cold War, the US felt the need to poke their nose in everyone's business fight the spectre of Communism. They accomplished this goal by intervening in other nations' civil wars and basing troops in countries, ostensibly for their protection. This meant that America had a military presence worldwide, just in case someone acted up, though a quick fix was to ask the CIAtoengineeracoup.

Some critics of American Foreign Policy argue that it amounts to little more than modern-day colonization. There are two main forms of colonization which the Americans pursue.

One is establishing "free markets", so that foreign markets can freely be flooded with American goods.[5] This can also be associated with the privatization of national assets, which usually fall into the hands of private American contractors.[6] The Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq planned to sell approximately 150 of 200 state-owned enterprises in 2004,[7] prompting critics from the Washington Post to claim: "It took L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Baghdad, no more than a stroke of the pen … to accomplish what eluded Republicans over the course of a decade and two presidential campaigns".[8]

The other is military occupation. The American Armed Forces currently have permanent bases in 61 countries worldwide.[9] They have a military presence in over 100 countries worldwide, including 100,000 troops in Europe, 77,000 in the Pacific and East Asia, and a total of 270,000 troops in foreign countries not currently in action. In 2012, there were an estimated 67,500 servicemen and servicewomen in Iraq and Afghanistan.[10]

"Seldom has history seen such a dominant, unilateral power astride the international scene." This is taken from a report to Congress and the President: "Commission on Review of Overseas Military Facility Structure of the United States".[11] The ambitions of the American foreign policy are clearly stated and not at all secretive, as seen in this extract from the above Commission:

"We have undertaken a transformation of strategy that is far-reaching in its implications on our ability to defend ourselves at home and to pursue our interests in the world. We have formulated new doctrines, organized new unit structures, developed new weapons, communications, intelligence, logistics, and command and control systems, and sought new allies and altered basing locations at home and abroad. We are adopting new techniques and procedures, shifting our forces around the globe, and otherwise launching a myriad of innovations."[12]

Any thinking person must wonder what could be implied by "our ability to defend ourselves at home and to pursue our interests in the world", when the American government insists its current military actions are purely defensive measures, put in place to "counter terrorism".

France extensively colonized Africa and Indochina, and still held many of its colonies until the 1970s and still retains real estate all over the globe as former colonies have been incorporated as overseas territories.[13] Another remnant of France's empire is the French parallel to the British Commonwealth of Nations, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an international organization of French-speaking states. France is still very active in promoting its language abroad[14][15] and has intervened various times in former colonies, deposing or installing governments at will. The Quebec sovereignty movement was also backed and boosted by Charles de Gaulle[16] and later French leaders, creating a major headache in Canadian politics. Another remnant of french colonialism is the CFA franc, the name of two currencies: the West African CFA franc, used by the UEMOA (West African Economic and Monetary Union) and the Central Africa CFA franc used by the CEMAC (Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa). CFA's value is pegged to the euro (whose monetary policy is set by the European Central Bank). The CEMAC, the UEMOA and their central banks can't make decisions without agreement from the French Central Bank.

Japan joined the empire game relatively late, but nonetheless managed to acquire a sizable one. Initially an absolute monarchy, then a constitutional monarchy, it eventually spiraled into a fascist system which, though it kept up a façade of elections and party politics, was effectively run by a military-industrial complex. The Japanese also invented a wonderful Newspeak title for their empire (the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere), thus being Orwellian before the term was even coined.[17] Like the Russian Empire, the Empire of Japan had the emperor play a spiritual role. Unlike the Russians however, the Emperor was actively worshipped. This caused some trouble later. The pre-World War II colonies of Japan included what is now Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria, and Micronesia.

At the time of the October Revolution, the successors to the tsars were hotly debating "the national question", with Lenin in favour of keeping a tight grip on the Finnish, Georgian, and Polish possessions, while Stalin (himself a Georgian), favouring more self-determination and even an eventual path to independence. Lenin saw the independence of the Tsar's possessions to be a 'betrayal of internationalist principles', and when Stalin sensed which way the wind was blowing, he switched to Lenin's side on the issue for good. Lenin also favoured turning Russia's participation in World War I into a revolutionary struggle, with the aim of making Europe's population so enraged by the war that they would rise up as he and his party had done. Ironically, this had imperialist overtones, and when Lenin grasped how unpopular the war had become in Russia, he dropped the idea.

The Holy Roman Empire over time, with modern political boundaries in outline

The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, but it did last some 900 years in varying forms, occasionally acquiring territories only to lose others. It never directly engaged in overseas imperial conquest. This may have been due to its generally questionable ability to effectively exert central control over the plethora of independent prince-electors, bishops, free cities and merchant republics, not to mention its failure to control external threats from France and curtail the Protestant Reformation.

However, during the reign of Charles V (1519-1556), the Emperor of the HRE inadvertently found himself in control of a blossoming global empire. In Europe, Charles V inherited Austrian territories from the Habsburg dynasty, Netherlands from the House of Valois-Burgundy, and Castile and Aragon (now Spain) from the Trastámara dynasties. This last inheritance not only gave him Aragon's considerable colonies and territories in the Mediterranean, but Castile's American and Asian possessions too. By sheer luck, Charles V found himself ruling half of Europe, Spanish Mexico, the Spanish Philippines, the Spanish West Indies, and enclaves along the coast of Northern Africa at the same time. Thus, he is said to be the first monarch to rule over an empire "on which the sun never sets", despite never engaging directly in overseas discoveries or colonization.

The German Empire didn't last long: from unification in 1871 to collapse after the Great War was a mere 47 years.[21] Germany got into the overseas empire game late, getting only some bits of Africa,[22] a small colony in China, and some Pacific islands.[23]

Hitler was ambiguous on the colonial question, first endorsing a desire to regain colonies but later reneging it and ultimately his main focus was on conquering Eastern Europe, enslaving or exterminating everything "un-German" that lived there and building a large scale land empire on the ashes. So, hooray for confining his murderous tyranny to Europe?

The behavior of some former colonies could be interpreted as colonialism. For example, the Konfrontasi during Sukarno's presidency in Indonesia resulted in ineffective invasions of neighboring Malaysia and Brunei, and the effective annexation of Irian Jaya (later Papua Province). President Suharto later annexed East Timor. Several revolts against "Javanese Imperialism" have taken place within Indonesia in attempts to break away from the state: the Molucca (or Maluku) islands (1950, unsuccessful), Aceh Province (limited autonomy in 2002), East Timor (full independence in 2002), and Papua Province (ongoing). The imperialist aspect is expressed not just by the various independence movements, but by government and military control resting largely in the hands of ethnic Javanese, and ongoing transmigration (transmigrasi) of (mostly) Javanese to far-flung provinces for what is effectively colonization.[24]

↑
Note the legend of the Britons inviting Hengist and Horsa into Britain and triggering the Anglo-Saxon takeover, and the legend of the Slavs inviting Rurik to restore order in proto-Russia. Later the Maori would invite the Anglo-Saxons to colonise New Zealand (1840), whereas King George XII of Georgia and Chairman of the Presidium of the Revolutionary Council of Afghanistan Hafizullah Amin would allegedly invite the Russians/Soviets to restore order in Georgia (1800) and in Afghanistan (1979) respectively.

↑The content of "Nationality" ("Narodnost") was the problem: Did it refer to Russian nationalism? Love of the empire? The people? While usually translated as "nationality", other possible translations are something like the "spiritual identity of the people", or even "populism"

↑There is an argument to be made that the Third Reich was an imperial project, but an even briefer one, lasting all of 12 years, 3 months and 8 days from start to finish.

↑What is today Namibia, Tanzania and parts of Cameroon, Ghana and Togo

↑Specifically, what is today Samoa, most of Papua New Guinea, along with parts of the Solomon Islands, Northern Mariana and Marshall Islands, as well the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru and Palau.